Rannamaari Wreck

The Rannamaari is a sand dredger that, in the 1980s, was used in the land reclamation of Malé and Thilafushi. In 1999, the Ihuru resort chose it to make a dive wreck. The idea of bringing the dredger to Ihuru as an artificial reef came from Shahul Hameed (Banyan Tree/Angsana) and Abdul Azeez Abdul Hakeem (N.D. Azeez), an environmentalist and director of Ihuru Investments. Cleaned of its engine, batteries and toxic waste, it was towed to Ihuru on 25/04/1999. It sank by itself that night, two days before the scheduled date, 27/04.

In Maldivian folklore, Rannamaari is a monster that came out of the sea every full moon and took away a virgin girl. Since 2013, the resort has celebrated the wreck's anniversary with the "10 to 10": 24 hours of dives streamed live, from 10 a.m. to 10 a.m. the next day.

Jacks and schools of fusiliers linger outside the hull, while groupers and batfish circle around it. In the engine room there are glassfish, bigeyes, squirrelfish and giant moray eels. On the bottom, scorpionfish, stingrays and nurse sharks rest.